Parks' Fly Shop: Walk-Wade Guide Trips, Yellowstone Park Guide Trips, Yellowstone Park Fly Fishing, Yellowstone Park Fishing Guides

Public water walk trips are particularly good options for beginning and novice anglers, anyone who'd prefer to spot and stalk their quarry or match hatches, avid hikers, anglers interested in learning about a particular stream in detail, people who want to fish small water (sometimes small water with big fish), and anyone who'd like a slower-paced day than is possible on a float. Walk and wade trips offer more opportunities for personalized instruction than floats, including detailed information on access points and tactics for when you fish the Yellowstone area on your own. There are also more opportunities for wildlife watching and other non-fishing activities.

With a few exceptions, public water walk trips are not good choices for those with limited mobility or for those who want or require a complicated lunch; if we're hiking, you're getting a premade sandwich, for example. They are also not good choices if members of your party are fishing with spinning tackle, since most of the streams we fish on foot are unsuitable for this technique and none of our guides do it, anyway.

Read on to learn about some of our top walk trip destinations at different times of year, or simply click one of the following links if you'd like to skip down: Early Spring Walk Trips, Late Spring Walk Trips, Summer Walk Trips, Early Fall Walk Trips, Late Fall Walk Trips.

 

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Early Spring Public Water Walk & Wade Trips

March through late May

Because Yellowstone Park does not open to fishing until Memorial Day weekend, opportunities prior to this are limited to the Yellowstone outside the Park (and the Madison, with contract outfitters). While the dry fly fishing isn't as consistent on the in the spring as it will be later, the trout feed eagerly on nymphs and streamers, trying to fatten up after a long winter, and when a hatch does happen the fish can go crazy for dries for an hour or two.

In late April or early May the famous Mother's Day caddis hatch occurs, and fishing it on foot ensures you're in a good spot when the fish start to rise. A big benefit of walk trips over floats at this time is that we'll typically fish water where the boats don't go. Early spring public water trips fall under shoulder season rates.

 

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Late Spring Public Water Walk & Wade Trips

Memorial Day Weekend through June

Late May is runoff time on many area rivers, but with the opening of the Park season on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the geyser-fed Firehole, Madison, and Gibbon offer great fishing when everything else is out of play. Typically the best fishing on the Firehole and Gibbon occurs in June, while the best match-the-hatch fishing on the Madison also occurs at this time. Several hike-in lakes offer a change of pace and the chance for grayling and the summer's first cutthroats, as well as some truly huge brook trout for the physically fit. On some days early in the season the Gardner is fishable, and it becomes fishable for good later in the month. When it is fishable, it can turn out huge numbers of fish on nymphs for the fit angler, as the trout begin feeding on stoneflies migrating towards shore. It is also much less crowded than the Firehole and Madison at this time.

As an added bonus for late spring walk trips, area tourism really doesn't get crazy until about the 20th of June, so crowds (both on the roads and on the rivers) aren't as bad as they will be later. Late spring trips fall under normal rates.

 

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Summer Public Water Walk & Wade Trips

Late June or Early July through Labor Day

The rivers across the northern part of Yellowstone Park, the Yellowstone outside the park, and many creeks begin dropping into fishable condition sometime in late June or early July depending on the year, while the Firehole, Madison, and Gibbon in the Park shut down due to high water temperatures. Our top destinations in the summer are the canyon sections of the Yellowstone, hike-in destinations on Slough Creek and portions of the Gardner and Lamar Rivers, and various other creeks we aren't going to name online.

For anglers who want to stay close to the road, Soda Butte Creek and other portions of the Lamar River are the best bets, while we often get beginners into vast numbers of small but pretty brook trout while fishing the small but pretty streams in the upper Gardner River system.

Summer offers the most consistent fishing overall, some of the most consistent hatches, the most comfortable weather, and (in early summer at least) the dumbest fish, so crowds are heavy. Be sure to book early! Summer trips fall under normal rates.

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Early Fall Public Water Walk & Wade Trips

Labor Day through September

September is a time of transition, and the transition doesn't come all at once. It is possible to fish the Firehole in a driving snowstorm the day after Labor Day, catching fish on mayflies, then fish the Lamar under bright, warm sun on the 25th and catch fish on grasshopper imitations. Thus September offers the largest number of fishable streams of any month.

Fishing is typically more demanding in September than earlier, and except immediately before Labor Day and late in the month the more-famous rivers and lakes of the Yellowstone region can still be crowded with anglers, but the fish are fatter and stronger than they are earlier in the year, the first fall-run browns are now entering the Gardner and Madison systems, and the cutthroats and rainbow-cutt hybrids in the Yellowstone are beginning to get hungry for streamers and fall Blue-winged Olive mayflies in addition to the remaining grasshoppers. Anglers coming in September must be prepared to do what conditions dictate: if it's hot and sunny, we're going to fish the Yellowstone, Gardner, or Lamar system, while cold weather might mean nymphing up browns on the Gardner or swinging wet flies on the Firehole.

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Late Fall Public Water Walk & Wade Trips

October through early November

In October, our focus shifts more strongly towards the Madison system and the Gardner. Typically we focus on the Firehole for dry fly fishing and the Gardner when pursuing larger fish, but there are large numbers of big fish entering the Madison, lower Firehole, and lower Gibbon in earnest and sometimes heavy hatches on the Gardner and Yellowstone, as well. Except on warmer days, we avoid the Lamar drainage in October, while the Yellowstone can still fish very well as long as we don't get an extended cold snap.

October sees far fewer anglers coming to the Yellowstone region, with the exception of the Madison just inside the gate, but this is your best time to catch a large trout inside Yellowstone Park. When the weather is at its most miserable -snowing and with temperatures at or below freezing- both big trout and big numbers of them are possible. After October 15 late fall trips fall under shoulder season rates, while before October 15 normal rates apply.

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